WeWork has sealed a deal for a 40,000-square-foot space above the planned Whole Foods in Williamsburg, in what amounts to the shared office provider’s first Brooklyn location, sources with intimate knowledge of the deal told Commercial Observer.

WeWork signed the dotted line within the last month in a direct deal for the entire second floor at Aurora Capital Associates’ 242 Bedford Avenue, the sources said. The price was rumored to be in the ballpark of the $50s-per-foot prevailing price in that submarket, the sources said.
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ABS Partners Real Estate and PBS Real Estate have merged, it was announced yesterday. The news follows the announcement earlier this week that Laura Pomerantz, founding partner of PBS Real Estate, has launched her own eponymous firm.

The two parties began talking about a potential merger in early February, Gregg Schenker, co-managing partner and president of ABS Partners, told The Commercial Observer. PBS Real Estate employees moved to ABS Partners’ Union Square office yesterday.
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This week, as brokers and retailers descend upon Manhattan for the International Council of Shopping Centers’ conference in New York, retail consultants John Harding and Richard Cohan, of the 34th Street Partnership, will be meeting with eight to 10 representatives of brands, restaurants and stores each day to convince them to seek locations in the 34th Street area. Given the retail and brand presence already in place along the retail corridor, they may not have to try very hard.

Mr. Cohan, one of the organization’s retail specialists, lists B&H, Gap, Victoria’s Secret, H&M, Foot Locker and Zara as brands that have found a home in the area. There are also newcomers—Joe Fresh and Vince Camuto have set up shop between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, and Timberland landed in the area last year, as did Uniqlo.
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It was a Los Angeles-based company inspired by Japanese shopping habits that brought pop-up retail to America. During a trip to Tokyo in 1999, Russ Miller witnessed the lengths to which the city’s famously voracious consumers would go to buy rare and limited-edition products.

Mr. Miller brought that mind-set back to L.A. with Vacant, “a retail concept and exhibition store” that would open shops only to close them as soon as they ran out of goods.

Discount retailer Target once again positioned itself as the funky anti-Walmart when it took over a 220-foot-long boat at Chelsea Piers for a two-week stay on the Hudson River that coincided with Black Friday in November of 2002. Vacant arrived in New York in February 2003, working with Dr. Martens on a pop-up space at 43 Mercer Street.
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The Winick Realty Group retail duo of Jeff Winick and Darrell Rubens has been brought on to handle retail leasing for 100 Broadway, a building previously represented by Cushman & Wakefield, The Commercial Observer has learned.
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The much-watched Canadian retailer that recently landed on Fifth Avenue with a splash of red and white, is opening its second New York City location, multiple sources told The Observer.

Joe Fresh, a Gap-lite clothing line most commonly found in Canadian grocery stores,is moving into the former Esprit space at 110 Fifth Avenue in the Flatiron district. The roughly 15,000-square-foot space Read More